Applaud decisiveness. By praising individuals for their decisiveness, you alert buck-passers that you’re not going to punish them for trying their best. In fact, the more you praise acts of courage, the more you spur slowpokes.

Tolerate misfires. Create an environment where bad decisions don’t trigger your wrath. Extract lessons rather than pointing fingers. Buck-passers may take charge once they sense you won’t embarrass them if they mess up.

Dangle a carrot. Delegate the most coveted assignments to decisive employees. Or name only your best decision makers to high-visibility teams. Explain to buck-passers that they, too, can advance by adopting bolder habits.

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Coach and debrief. Hold buck-passers accountable for their dallying. How? Ask them to keep a log of three decisions they make each day. At week’s end, review the log with them and dissect each decision together.

Once they start forcing themselves to be decisive, they may cotton to it. And by helping them analyze the upshot of their decisions, you emphasize the need to learn and grow rather than point fingers.

Give real-time feedback. When you notice a buck-passer trying to stall or sidestep a decision, promptly meet with the person and point it out. For example, during a break in a meeting, say, “You just laid out all the options without telling us which one you prefer. When we reconvene, I’m going to ask you to pick the best alternative and explain why.”

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Spot a buck-passer

Some employees go undercover to avoid making decisions. Beware of these ploys:

They create a diversion. Some folks talk around an issue or change the subject, hoping to redirect the conversation so that time will run out before they must decide.

They ask for needless data. Demanding detailed explanations of every possible option or theory can grind discussion to a halt.